Like her or not, Clinton's run engages women

Not all say her gender matters, but many are delighted to see this political milestone.

January 28, 2008|By Susan Jacobson Sentinel Staff Writer

Marsha Chusmir Shapiro remembers a time, not so long ago, when the idea of a woman running seriously for president was considered laughable.

So the 57-year-old middle-school civics teacher in Daytona Beach is thrilled that Sen. Hillary Clinton is a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination this year.

Amie Theisen, 74, of Lake Mary isn't thrilled. She's horrified.

Theisen called a potential Clinton victory "the biggest disaster in the world" and said she doesn't identify with the candidate at all.

The two Central Florida women illustrate the powerful and disparate reactions to Clinton's historic candidacy and the attention it has focused on the importance of female voting in the 2008 race.

'She has it'

Women generally register and vote in greater proportions than men, and they tend to vote more for Democrats, said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

A Mason-Dixon poll last week found that Clinton's support among likely Democratic voters in Florida's primary on Tuesday is stronger among women, at 51 percent, than her overall support, which is 47 percent.

"Hillary doesn't have to play the gender card," said Bystrom, author of a 2006 book on gender and elections. "She has it."

A November poll for Lifetime Networks' Every Woman Counts campaign, which encourages women to vote and highlights issues of significance to them, found that nearly one in four women says she is paying more attention to the race because a woman is running.

Love her or not, Clinton has galvanized women voters as she tries to shatter the highest glass ceiling of all.

"Just the fact that we have reached that milestone, to me, is a delight," said Leila Nodarse, 47, chief executive of Nodarse & Associates, an environmental-consulting and geotechnical-engineering firm with headquarters in Winter Park.

Just another candidate?

Not all women are wowed by Clinton's potential to become president. Former Kissimmee Mayor Linda Goodwin-Nichols said the former first lady is just another candidate to her.

"I vote for the person," said Goodwin-Nichols, who owns a Kissimmee real-estate firm. "I don't think gender or anything else has anything to do with it. I just try to pick the best person to serve."

"There's not a Hillary factor here for me," said Chinoda, whose organization is based in south Orange County. "I resonate toward a candidate who has the same common ideals and goals. I'm not interested in the sex. I'm interested in the message."

While not everyone likes her, many women are offended when the news focuses too much on Clinton's hairdos -- or her husband. And when two men recently heckled Clinton in New Hampshire, yelling, "Iron my shirt," the crowd cheered when the men were removed from the room.

"There are moments of these connections [with women], and then you're going to have to close the deal with where you stand on the issues," said Joan McLean, a professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University with a long interest in women and government.

In 1984, McLean was an adviser to Geraldine Ferraro, the first American woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket. Ferraro ran with Walter Mondale, who lost to Ronald Reagan.

Like many men, women cite the economy, the war in Iraq and bolstering the country's leadership and perception by the world as areas of concern. Women, however, are more apt to care deeply about child care, pay equity and reproductive rights, experts said.

"Women's worldview is not about being female," said Terri Fine, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida who has done research on gender and politics. "It's about being middle class or educated or having two or three jobs."

Some say the glass ceiling won't break until women serve consistently in top roles from heads of Fortune 500 companies to Supreme Court justices to Nobel Prize winners.

"When it comes to money and power and politics, we're not there yet," said Linda Chapin, Orange County's first elected chairman, who now directs the Metropolitan Center for Regional Studies at UCF. "This is a chance to change things forever."